What is surprising is was promptly the account was taken down by Twitter when some very serious users - arguably all of them from Redmond, WA - had a problem distinguishing reality from parody. The same Twitter, which as the FT revealed overnight, handed over user data to French prosecutors to help them identify authors of anti-Semitic and other racist and homophobic messages in a move to settle a bitter legal dispute, a first for Twitter.

Either way, below is a recap of the tweets that got the account banned in hours, not days, as apparently someone at Microsoft was not very happy with the content.

Amusingly, following the public outcry, the account has been reinstated now that it carries the clear disclosure it is a parody account, with the snafu generating far greater public interest in the latest social media backfire for Microsoft. Incidentally, Microsoft still has to provide any information as to whether all of its software has a backdoor hack for the NSA to enter through, or just some of it.